Nigeria puts ex-dictator's son in dock for murder

The son of the late Nigerian military ruler, General Sani Abacha, is to appear in a Lagos court this week charged with murder.

Prosecutors have not publicly revealed whom Mohammed Abacha is accused of killing but reports in Nigeria say the charge relates to the death of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the late opposition leader Moshood Abiola.

She was shot dead in her car on a Lagos street in broad daylight in 1996. Her husband died in prison of heart failure last year.

Last week President Olusegun Obasanjo said Mohammed Abacha, 33, had been arrested with two of his father's security officials for what he called "heinous crimes".

He added: "We have maintained in this administration that there will be no sacred cows and that, if you have committed a crime and you have to be brought to book, you will be brought to book."

The two other men charged are Hamza al-Mustapha, who was Gen Abacha's chief security officer, and Rogers Mshelia, an army sergeant. They are expected to appear in the Lagos high court today or tomorrow.

A statement from the president's office said the arrests were made after a "very lengthy and painstaking investigation".

A year ago Mohammed Abacha and his mother "voluntarily" handed back about £500m stolen from the state by Gen Abacha. Anti-corruption campaigners called for the pair to be prosecuted as accomplices and alleged that the returned money was but a fraction of what he stole.

Kudirat Abiola's murder was only one of a number believed to have been committed by a hit-squad run at Gen Abacha's behest. The other victims include an opposition leader, Alfred Rewane, trade union officials and human rights activists.

After President Obasanjo took office in May he launched an inquiry into human rights abuses during nearly three decades of military rule. A commission is sifting through documents before holding public hearings loosely modelled on the work of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The panel will also investigate the special tribunals used to try a number of the military's political opponents, including the executed Ogoni writer Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Some officials have already been named as targets for investigation, including the former assistant director of the directorate of military intelligence, Frank Omenka.

Among those already in detention is Jerry Useni, one of Gen Abacha's closest aides. He was one of the last people to see the late military ruler alive before his death in suspicious circumstances in June last year. He left his boss in the company of two Indian prostitutes.

Although the military government said Gen Abacha died of heart failure, its failure to conduct an autopsy and the speed of his burial have fuelled speculation that he was murdered by fellow officers who believed his brutal and uncompromising style of governance was damaging the country.

Last week President Obasanjo ordered the commission to extend its investigation back to the first military coup, in 1966. The decision means the inquiry now encompasses the years between 1976 and 1979 when Gen Obasanjo was the country's military ruler.

The commission, headed by a former supreme court judge, Chukwudifu Oputa, has a year to complete its work. "The panel and the government must not underestimate the scale of the task we are taking on," he said.

The commission has held meetings with experts from South Africa, Chile, Guatemala and Argentina to draw on their experiences of investigations into state human rights abuses.

"We will look to produce a general survey of what has gone wrong in Nigeria, as well as investigate specific cases of rights abuses," Mr Oputa said.